Device for driving sweeper for coke oven door



Sept. 1, 1970 HIROSHI KATO 3,526,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN DOOR Filed Aug 16, 1966 8 Sheets-Sheet 1 F i g 1 INVENTOR ATTORNEY Sept. 1, 1970 HIROSHI KATO 3,526,

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FDR COKE OVEN DOOR Filed Aug. 16. 1966 8 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. H R05H/ K A TO HIROSHI KATO 3,526,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN DOOR Sept. 1, 1910 8 SheetsSheet 5 Filed Aug. 16, 1966 INVENTOR -H/ROSH/ K4 70 AT TORNIY p 1970 HIROSHI KATO 3,526,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN DOOR 8 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Aug. 16. 1966 J m-a "P; 7

5 v INVENTOR. 4 H/ROSH/ KA TO ,4 T Tomw'y Sept. 1, 1970 HIROSHI KATO 3,525,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR com: OVEN DOOR Filed Aug. 16. 1966 8 Sheets-Sheet s FigB INVENTOR HIAOJH K4 T0 BY 2 Arromvty p 1, 1970 HIROSHI KATO 3,526,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN DOOR Filed Aug. 16, 1966 8 Sheets-Sheet u F/G. 3B

INVENTOR. H/ROSH/ KA 7'0 P 1, 1970 HlROSHl KATO 3,526,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN noon Filed Aug. 16. 1966 8 Sheets-Sheet 7 INVENTOR H/ROSH/ KA TO I %M 3 1% A 'r romvey P 1970 HlROSHl KATO 3,526,013

DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN DOOR Filed Aug. 16. 1966 8 Sheets-Sheet 8 INVENTQR H/ROSH/ K A 7'0 I I ATTORNIY United States Patent 3,526,013 DEVICE FOR DRIVING SWEEPER FOR COKE OVEN DOOR Hiroshi Kato, Tokyo, Japan, assignor to Allied Chemical Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Aug. 16, 1966, Ser. No. 572,783 Claims priority, application Japan, Aug. 20, 1965, 40/ 68,042 Int. Cl. AOlk 31/04 US. Cl. 15-93 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to a novel device for driving a sweeper for a coke oven door by which the knife edge portion of the door, the inner face of the elastic seal plate, and the faces of the brickwork in the oven door, which are adapted to Seal the coke oven, are all swept thoroughly.

Cleaning of the door of a coke oven is ordinarily carried out in such a manner that the oven door is detached from the coke oven and suspended by a door lifter in a swingable manner facing a cutter carriage, while the sweeper is directed to and fitted in the door. Then the cutter carriage provided in the sweeper is driven for cleaning.

In the ordinary devices for driving the sweeper for coke oven doors, the linear travelling speed of the cutter carriage is somewhat accelerated as it passes around the curved corner of the guide rail, thereby causing much trouble. The holding force of the wheels of the cutter carriage on both faces of the guide rail is weakened, thereby causing slipping and abrupt variation in the travelling speed of the cutter carriage. The net eifect is to cause incomplete cleaning around the curved corner portion of the door.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a driving means which is simple in structure and drives the sweeper smoothly to clean around the corner portions of the door of the coke oven with the same effectiveness as to sweep the straight portion of the door without slipping.

The device for driving a sweeper for a coke oven door of this invention comprises a rectangular guide rail in the form of a frame having a slightly larger inner peripheral size than a door to be swept, said rectangular guide rail having arc-shaped corner portions, said arc-shaped corner portions being so shaped as to gradually form the thickest width at the corner extremities of the frame, said guide rail having a long slot laterally provided at each corner and a number of short slots laterally provided along the entire straight portion of said rail, a plurality of attaching members fixedly secured to an inner face of said rail and bearing members interposed between said attaching members, a shaft of a gear of a larger diameter being fixed into the bearing member, a peripheral edge of said large gear being laterally projected outwardly through the long corner slot, a shaft of a gear of a smaller diameter being fixed into another bearing member, a peripheral edge of said small gear being laterially projected outwardly through the short slot, an endless chain engaging these four large corner gears and many small gears, a cutter carriage having two front and two rear outer wheels and an intermediate wheel located midway between front and rear outer wheels so that said outer and intermediate wheels engage opposite faces of said guide rail, a resilient and cylindrical unit secured to the cutter carriage so as to resilientl press these outer wheels onto the outer face of the guide rail and the intermediate wheel onto the inner face of the guide rail, respectively, a cutter knife secured to an extruding rod, a cutter knife secured to the bottom of the resilient and cylindrical unit, a driving motor and a reduction gear arranged on a frame above the guide rail, a belt engaged between the driving motor and the reduction gear, a chain engaged between the reduction gear and a gear coaxially secured to a shaft of one of the two nearest large gears, so constructed that the rotation of the driving motor is given to one of the large gears through the belt, reduction gear, chain coaxial gear of the large gear and the endless chain so as to carry out the normal forward and reverse rotation of the cutter carriage around the frame.

In addition, when the cutter carriage travels around the curved corner of the guide rail, the distance L between a line X on each shaft of the outer wheels of the carriage travelling along the straight portion of the guide rail on the outside and a parallel line Y on the shaft of the intermediate wheel on the inside is a little shortened into L, thus causing rapid travelling and slipping of the cutter carriage and also resulting in incomplete travelling of the cutter knife around the curved portion of the door.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention and their accomplishment will become more apparent from an examination of the following specifications, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the cutter carriage illustrative of an arrangement of the device to the guide rail and a part of the coke oven door to be swept;

FIG. 1B a front elevation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a partial diagrammatic elevation of one corner portion of the guide rail illustrating the travelling course of the outer wheel of the cutter carriage;

FIG. 2-B front elevation of the whole door and cleaning frame in operative relationship;

FIG. 3 is a partial diagrammatic front elevation of the present device showing the arrangement of the driving members and a driving path of the chain;

FIG. 3-B diagrammatic top view of the drive mechanism of FIG. 3 showing spatial relationships of parts;

FIG. 4 is a partial view illustrating the relationship between the guide rail and the cutter carriage in travel of the carriage;

FIG. 5 is a partial diagrammatic view of one corner portion of the guide rail illustrating a plurality of gears and a part of the endless chain mounted to engage these gears, and

FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of the guide rail illustrating the laterally providing slots in said guide rail.

Referring now to the drawings (FIG. 2BFIG. 3), a frame is formed by the rectangular guide 2 having a peripheral size slightly larger than the door 1 to be swept, while an arc-shaped corner portion of said guide rail 2 is so shaped as to gradually form the thickest width at its corner extremity (FIGS. 4, 5, 6). A long slot 6 is laterally provided at each corner portion and a number of short slots 6 are laterally provided along the entire straight portions of the guide rail 2. Onto the inner face of the rail 2 are fixedly secured a plurality of bearing members 25 with a little space and bearing members 24 are fixedly interposed into each space between these bearing members 25. A shaft of a gear 5 of a larger diameter is fixedly secured into the bearing member 24 at each corner portion of the guide rail 2, a peripheral edge of said large gear 5 being laterally projected outwardly through the long slot 6 (FIGS. 1, 2). A shaft of each gear 7 of a smaller diameter is fixed into each bearing member 24, a peripheral edge of said small gear 7 being laterally projected outwardly through the short slot 6. An endless chain 8 is rotatably mounted on these four large gears 5 and many other small gears 7.

A cutter carriage 3 of this invention consists of a casing, a pair of outer front Wheels 14 and a pair of rear wheels 14' and an intermediate wheel 15 located midway between front and rear outer wheels (relationship shown in FIGS. 1, 1B, 2). Moreover, a roller 18 is secured by an arm 18' to a side of the carriage 3 (FIG. 1) in such a manner that said roller 18 is resiliently made to contact collar 17. A resilient and cylindrical unit 3' is by a pair of bolts secured to an opposite side of the cutter carriage 3.

The pushing members a, b and c are fitted into a longitudinal opening of the cylindrical units through a coil spring 16, and a member 3" is secured to a bottom of the cylindrical unit 16' (FIG. 1). A transverse opening is also provided within the bottom member 3", into which an extruding rod 31 is fitted and said extruding rod 31 is always kept to be extended into a direction of a seal plate of the door by means of a pushing member d and a coil spring 16. The pushing member a is adapted to resiliently press the outer wheels 14 and 14' onto the outer face of the guide rail 2, while the pushing member b acts to press the intermediate wheel 15 onto the inner face of the guide rail 2. The pushing member is adapted to force the bottom member 3" onto the surface of the door 1. A cutter knife 22 is secured at an end of the extruding rod 31, and a cutter knife 22' is also provided beneath the bottom member 3". The seal plate 20 circumferentially is secured to the edge of the door 1 and the knife edge 19 is also provided to said seal plate 20. The refractory brick 21 is the structure along the periphery adjacent to the door 1.

As shown in FIG. 3 the guide rail 2 is supported within a rectangular frame 28 by means of a frame 30, on which a pair of longitudinal supports 29, 29 are provided, and a frame 9 is transversely mounted. A motor 10 and a reduction gear 10' are mounted on the frame 9, and a belt 12 is engaged on each pulley of the motor 10 and of the reduction gear 10 through an idler 23. A coaxial gear 13 is secured to the shaft of one of the two nearest larger gears 5, and a chain 12' is engaged between the reduction gear 10' and the coaxial gear 13 through an idler 23'.

In the operation, the door 1 of the coke oven is carefully set in position within the guide rail 2, and the rotation of the motor 10 is transmitted to the large gear through the belt 12, reduction gear chain 12' and the coaxial gear 13, then the endless chain 8 mounted on the large gears 5 and the small gear 7 is driven to travel slowly, in consequence, and the two cutter carriages 3, 3 (FIG. 2B) provided at opposite points begin to travel in accordance with the slow travelling of the chain 8. In consequence, the knife edge 19, seal plate and the face of the door 1 of the coke oven may be fully scraped for sweeping by the cutter knives 22 and 22'.

As particularly shown in FIG. 4, the arc-shaped corner portion of the guide rail 2 of this invention is so shaped as to gradually become thickest at its corner extremity so that the distance L between the line X on each shaft of the outer wheels 14, 14' of the carriage 3 along the straight portion and the parallel line Y on the shaft of the intermediate wheel 15 is not shortened even if the carriage 3 is travelling around the corner portion of the guide rail 2, so as to effect the smooth travelling of the cutter carriage around the curved corner, thus enabling the smooth cleaning of said curved corner of the door 1. This is attained by means of the pushing members a and b, resiliently holding the outer wheels 14, 14' and the 4 intermediate Wheel 15 on both faces of the guide rail 2. As explained already, the cutter knife 22 is firmly held against the seal plate 20 by means of the pushing member d.

In recapitulation, therefore, it will be seen that the invention is concerned with a device for driving a sweepercleaner for coke oven doors in which a knife-edge portion of the door and the inner face of the seal plate of the oven door are cleaned of accumulated carbon developed during the coking operation.

Provision is made in the structure for maintaining the locus of the diameter of the wheels travelling around the outside of the guide frame and those travelling around the inside of the seal plate substantially equal so that acceleration and slippage of the cutter carriage as it makes its transit around corners is avoided.

The apparatus thus consists of several elements, one of which is a main guide frame, or cleaning frame, large enough completely to frame a coke oven door and to allow room for movement of the cleaning unit which is chain driven around the frame, thereby having the cleaning mechanism at a controlled distance from the surfaces to be cleaned. The door cleaning and handling machine, not forming a part of this invention, holds the door in this relationship to the cleaning frame.

The device of this invention thus consists of a mechanism for driving a sweeper for a coke oven door, the device comprising a rectangular guide rail of a size larger than the door to be swept, said guide rail having arcuate corner sections to permit smooth travel of a wheeled vehicle around said corners, the are shaped corner portions also being shaped to taper the thickness at the corner extremity, thereby to moderate or eliminate acceleration or slippage of the cleaning device as it moves around the inside of the door seal. The guide rail is essentially the basic element of the combination and has a slot in each corner of the frame aligned with additional slots at points in the sides of the frame beyond the curvature of the corner. The purpose of these slots is to provide for the extension of a gear therethrough so as to engage a driving chain as will appear subsequently. The frame carries support members on its inner face at each side of the slot, which support members carry bearings suitable for receiving the shafts of appropriate gears which extend through the slots of the frame to provide for the chain drive. The peripheral edge of the gears projects laterally outwardly through the slots and an endless chain passing around the frame engages these four gears at the corners and the several smaller auxiliary gears, thereby to provide a carrying mens for the cutter carriage. The cutter carriage is attached to the chain and has front and rear. outer wheels for running on the frame and an intermediate wheel to run inside the frame, thereby to provide guidance for thecarriage; the carriage being attached to the chain so that it can be driven around the frame for maintaining cleaning engagement with the door supported within the frame. The cleaning unit consists of a resilient cylindrical unit secured to the cutter carriage, so as to resiliently engage the guide rail and it carries a cutter knife secured to a forwardly extending rod, together with a driving motor and reduction gear carried in a stationary relationship on a frame above the guide rail, so as to provide for belt engagement between the driving motor, reduction gear and gear coaxially secured to a shaft of one of the two nearest large gears. Thus, the rotation of the driving motor is transmitted to one of the larger gears through the belt, reduction coaxial gear and the endless chain so as to carry the cleaning unit in its normal travel around the frame. Provision can also be made for reversal of the cutter carriage travel.

Referring now to FIG. 1, it can be perceived that the mechanism consists of a device which is carried on the frame 2 for the purpose of cleaning a coke oven door 1, which has its face enclosure defined by knife-edge 19 and face plate 20. The carriage consists of a body 3 which is the running body comprising a pair of wheels 14 and 14', shown in side view in FIG. 1-B as an inner pair of wheels matched by a balancing guide wheel in the same plane but running on the inside of the frame 2. On the shaft with the wheels 14 and 14' is an outer set 14 and 14' and the body of the machine carries an extension 18 with a downwardly depending shaft and wheel 18 to follow guide 17 around the frame (FIG. 1).

Thus, it will be seen from the diagram in FIG. 1, coupled with FIG. 6, that the frame 2 consists essentially of an L shaped section, wherein the one portion of the L carries slots 6 and 6 and the other portion of the L 17 extends at right angles thereto, and the corner portion is thickened to adjust the reach of the cleaning cutter 22 as it makes its tour around the frame (FIG. 4).

From FIG. 1 it will be apparent that the placement of wheels and guide wheels, namely, wheels 14, 14', 15 and 18 is such as to hold the cleaner accurately in its track. That is, the wheel 18 in following ridge 17 around the frame will tend, generally, to hold the rest of the mechanism properly aligned with respect to the frame. It is next important to provide for driving the device around the frame, and this is accomplished as shown in FIGS. 1 and l-B, by providing a drive chain 8 engaging drive gears 7, carried in supports 24 and 25 on a shaft 26. The entire body of the machine :is connected to the chain 8 by means of connector links 8' as shown in FIG. 1-B.

The diagram in FIG. 2 shows in detail the arrangement of gears 5 and 7 aligned with the several slots and carried by shafts 26 mounted in the appropriate bearings or supports identified in the FIG. 1 as 24 and 25. These are merely the mechanical supports for the drive gears travelling in slots 6 for carrying the cleaning device around the circuit. In FIG. 2, it will be seen that the circles identified as 14 and 14', which are arranged so that their axes are in a single plane, in traversing an arcuate corner would become deflected from the contact with the arc and, accordingly, provision has been made to minimize skidding of the wheels or acceleration thereby by thickening the wall of the frame 2 in the area of bend. Here, the relationship of the gear 5 to the chain 8 and the wheels 14 is shown and by the thickening of the wall it will be apparent that the blades 22 of the cutting mechanism are kept in better contact with the inner portion of the sealing ring of the door 1. This relationship is diagrammatically shown in FIG. 2.

For a more full understanding of the relationship of the frame to the door, FIG. 2-B shows a full elevation of the door 1, its sealing edge 19, and the frame 2 which surrounds it. The driving mechanism consisting of the gears 5 and 7 at each of the corners of the frame is shown together with the chain 8 running around the entire door, the whole being driven by gear 13, carried on a shaft extended from gear 5, as better shown in FIG. 3-B; this provides for carrying the entire cleaning unit consisting of the wheels 14 and the body 3 with the cutter 22, around the frame and by carrying it around the frame, it is consistently held in cleaning contact with the sealing edge of the door.

Inspection of FIG. 3 in conjunction with FIG. 3-B will clarify the spatial relationship of parts and the driving mechanism. FIG. 3 is a detailed showing of the driving mechanism and in conjunction with FIG. 3-B, it will be apparent that the cleaning unit is driven around the frame in a frame defined by gear 5 and chain 8. Extending outwardly from the gear 5 is a shaft 26 which carries gear 13. This can be visualized in FIG. 1 as being a shaft coinciding with shaft 26 and extending to a distance such that the drive chain 12' can engage the gear 13 and also its reducer gear in a plane clear of wheel 18 and frame 2.

In FIG. 3, the driving mechanism and the chain 12' are shown engaging the gear 13 and in FIG. 3-B, the relationship of gear 13 to gear 5 and consequently with the drive chain 8, cleaning frame and door mechanism may be visualized by superimposing the drive chain 8 and gear 5 substantially in the orientation as shown in FIG. 1.

The entire drive mechanism, therefore, is carried on a large support frame 28, 29, 30, FIG. 3, which may be carried by a machine, or built at a particular cleaning station, which frame carries a lower support 30 and the vertical supports 29 to provide a fixed base on which the motor 10, its reducing gear 10' and the pulleys 12, 12, etc. may be mounted.

The cutter carriage shown in some detail in FIG. 1 consists of a case, a pair of front wheels 14. and a pair of rear wheels 14' with an intermediate wheel 15, located as explained for the purpose of gripping the guide frame 2 and guiding the cleaning unit around the frame. The roller 18 is a further guide for engaging the upstanding L portion of the frame. The cleaning mechanism con sists of the body 3, 3' which is essentially a spring mounted member consisting of a, b, and 0, each being a resilient spring functioning to engage the spring mounted cutter or scrapper d. The purpose of the spring mount is to provide a certain amount of resiliency so that the device will ride over occassional lumps of carbon too hard to be disengaged in a single pass.

Section d consists of a casing, an internal spring and forwardly extending shaft 31 carrying the cutter knife 22. In order to hold the cutter knife in correct relationship to the sealing plate of the door, the extra thickness of the guide frame 2 in the arcuate portion of the corner is provided so that the pair of wheels in making the traverse of the corner are held in tight engagement with the guide frame 2 and the combination of this with the compression springs in sections a, b, and c of the cutter mount is such that the cutters 22 will remain in good contact with the door. This is expressed in mathematical terms in terms of keeping the distance L equal to L as shown in FIG. 4 as the cutting unit makes the traverse of the corner.

What I claim is:

1. Device for driving a sweeper for a coke oven door comprising a guide rail arranged in a substantially rec tangular path, aid guide rail having an inner and an outer face and having an inner and an outer periphery, said inner periphery being slightly larger than the periphery of a door to be swept, said guide rail at the corners of the rectangular path having arc-shaped portions, said arc-shaped portions being further so formed as to gradually reach the maximum thickness at their midpoints, said guide rail having a long slot laterally provided at each comer portion and a plurality of short slots laterally provided along the entire straight side portions of said guide rail, a plurality of bearing members fixedly secured onto the inner face of said rail, a shaft of a gear of a larger diameter being held in the bearing member, a peripheral edge of said large gear radially extending outwardly through the long slot, a shaft of a gear of small diameter being mounted in another bearing member, a peripheral edge of said small gear radially extending out wardly through the short slot, an endless chain engaged with these four large corner gears and associated small gears, a cutter carriage having two front and two rear outer wheels and an intermediate wheel located midway between but below front and rear outer wheels so that the respective wheels are approximately tangent to each other, a resilient and cylindrical unit secured to the cutter carriage so as to resiliently press these outer wheels onto the outer face of the guide rail and the intermediate wheel onto the inner face of the guide rail, respectively, a cutter knife secured to the bottom of the resilient cylindrical unit, another cutter knife secured to an extruding rod fitted into a bottom member of the unit, a driving motor and a reduction gear arranged to engage the endless chain so as to carry out the forward and reverse movement of the cutter carriage around the frame.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 comprising a sweeper for a coke oven door, which comprises a casing,

a pair of front outer wheels and a pair of rear outer wheels, a roller secured by an arm to a side of the casing in such a manner that said roller may be made to contact a face of a collar provided around the guide rail, a cylindrical unit secured by bolts to another side of the casing, three pushing members being fitted through each coil spring into a longitudinal opening provided in the cylindrical unit, a bottom member secured to a bottom of the cylindrical unit, an extruding rod and a pushing member with a coil spring being fitted into a transverse opening of the bottom member, a cutter knife secured to a bottom face of the bottom member, another cutter knife secured to an end of said extruding rod, an intermediate wheel secured to a coupling member around the unit in such a manner that said wheel may be located midway between the front and rear wheels so that the outer 8. front and rear wheels are made to contact the outer face of the guide rail and the intermediate wheel is made to contact the inner face of said rail, respectively, by means of the resilient, cylindrical unit.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,120,668 2/1964 "Cook et a1. 15-21 FOREIGN PATENTS 385,003 4/1963 Japan.

WALTER A. SCHEEL, Primary Examiner L. G. MACHLIN, Assistant Examiner 

